"...since Bill is covering politics..." and since you may have simmered down a tad since the debt ceiling was bumped (and Obie promptly submitted additional spending requests which will require it to be bumped again, shortly), I figured I'd stir the pot a bit to prep you for your weekend.
A Congresscritter gets an annual salary of $174,000 per year -- which puts them in the top 5% of wage-earners (and I use that term loosely WRT the Congers) in the US.
Additional compensation -- benefits and perks -- brings that figure to $285,000 per year (bear in mind that *we* didn't authorize that, they awarded it to themselves).
Now, the Constitution mandates that Congress only *has* to do one single thing each year.
Produce a budget.
Which Congress has failed to do for two years, and we're well into the third, with not even a hint that they'll produce one this year.
They have abrogated the terms of their employment. They have not produced in accordance with their contract. They are non-performers.
If they've been in Congress for one full term or longer, their butts need to hit the pavement with a resounding, collective thud.
And no severance pay, and no benefits.
I have not yet even *begun* to rant...
A Congresscritter gets an annual salary of $174,000 per year -- which puts them in the top 5% of wage-earners (and I use that term loosely WRT the Congers) in the US.
Additional compensation -- benefits and perks -- brings that figure to $285,000 per year (bear in mind that *we* didn't authorize that, they awarded it to themselves).
Now, the Constitution mandates that Congress only *has* to do one single thing each year.
Produce a budget.
Which Congress has failed to do for two years, and we're well into the third, with not even a hint that they'll produce one this year.
They have abrogated the terms of their employment. They have not produced in accordance with their contract. They are non-performers.
If they've been in Congress for one full term or longer, their butts need to hit the pavement with a resounding, collective thud.
And no severance pay, and no benefits.
I have not yet even *begun* to rant...
Bill, you keep stirring it, slinging it and we'll t hrow it back.
Precedent.
Each of the lawsuits brought to force Obie to produce his birth certificate -- which he still hasn't done, although he totally pwned The Donald with "long form" smoke and mirrors -- was tossed each presiding judge ruled that an individual citizen has no compelling interest in determining whether a candidate is qualified to run for office. If we don't have the legal standing to ask whether someone running for the job of leading us is qualified, where is our legal standing in asking a bunch of someones to do what they were hired to do?
We can't do much to them collectively except petition for redress. But we can make each *individual* member of Congress aware of our displeasure, and the consequences of continuing to try our patience. F'r instance, instead of attending town meetings during this recess, my rep is currently barricaded inside his house.
I would like to see a law that Congress get zero pay or retirement credit for any year in which the budget is not balanced, or passed on time. And, payment to Congress members and staff should not start unless all appropriates bills have been passed, and no retroactive pay for them.
One state does not pay it's legislators if they don't produce a budget. At least I seem to remember one state not doing that this last spring. But, like Bill, I'm getting long in the tooth and may not be remembering aright.
What it means is that the person who has been assigned the power to goad Congress into action -- the President -- has been remiss. The people who actually have the power to determine the makeup of Congress -- the voters -- have been too busy watching the Boob Tube to pay attention to what Congress has been up to. Finally, the "free and unfettered press" is supposed to be the watchdog, and rouse the voters from their torpor -- but the "free and unfettered press" has morphed into the propaganda arm of the DNC, and is perfectly content to accept press releases full of Democrat talking points rather than go digging for genuine news.
They also didn't have the imagination to envision that Congress would further so debase itself as to hand over law making authority to the Executive through the facility of writing broad "We kind think something like this would be cool" laws and giving 'em to the bureaucrats to actually craft the details.
Of course, some of them did predict the rise of the bureaucracy, and the pernicious effect that would have. All done with the best of intentions, of course.
Heck, we've got bureaucrats proposing that SWWBO and I would now have to go get Commercial Drivers Licenses, with the attendant training to drive OTR 18 wheelers (which ain't cheap training) and the two-year renewal cycles (with attendant physicals) just to be able to operate our 35hp tractor, on our own property, which never *leaves* the property to operate on a public road, much less an interstate... and, because we use our ATV to tow agricultural equipment, *that* would require us to have a CDL to cover us towing our field mower.
Oh - and I'd have to keep those inspectable time logs, and wouldn't be allowed to drive the tractor more than eight hours at a time... even if the only person at risk is... me. Not the public.
I personally don't think the rule making is going to survive - the costs to implement (because all the licensure and enforcement is done at state level, there is no Federal Farm SWAT Team (yet) and the attendant drag on the economy, will be relatively immense (for virtually no value-added, either, but that's never stopped a bureaucrat) but the fact that it's even been proposed, in this form, is an example of the rot.
It also disconnected them from reality, because they now have more in common with their confreres than their constituents, and they now consider themselves members of a privileged class rather than that which they actually are -- "at will" employees. *Our* employees.
Ancient Egypt used to make slave bureaucrats because such work was beneath the nobility. Those slaves ended up owning the place before it was over. We're pretty much there now. Cut off AFDCand Food Stamps and watch what happens.